Nowadays, the conventional battery module generally includes a battery stack which is formed of a plurality of stacked batteries and two end plates which are provided on the two sides of the battery stack. The end plates on the two sides are respectively fixed to the two side plates by welding to resist the expansion force from the battery.
With the increasingly fierce competition in the battery system industry, for the sustainable development of enterprises, one direction lies in developing lower cost battery systems to improve the competitiveness of enterprises. Therefore, the battery module in the prior art is gradually developed into a non-module structure. Compared with the conventional battery module structure, said module-less structure removes the side plates connecting the two end plates. Due to the removal of the side plates, there is accordingly no connection between the side plates and the end plates to resist the expansion force from the battery. Therefore, in order to resist the expansion force from the batteries, the non-module structure usually employs a fixing band to clamp the battery stack and resist the end plates.
Since the conventional end plate and the side plate are fixed by welding, the conventional end plate can satisfy the requirement of welding with the side plate. When the side plate is removed and the fixing band is used in cooperation with the end plate to resist the expansion force from the battery, the position of the fixing band on the end plate is uncertain because the fixing band and the end plate are fixed only by the tension of the fixing band itself. Therefore, the requirement of resisting the expansion force from the individual batteries cannot be satisfied.
Therefore, there is a need for a new end plate and battery module for the battery module.